Anthony Joshua vs Wladimir Klitschko: How does the sold-out Wembley showdown compare to six of the best British heavyweight fights in history?

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Anthony Joshua is in the fight of his young life when he meets Wladimir Klitschko at Wembley Stadium for his IBF world heavyweight championship as well as the vacant WBA and IBO titles.

The two heavyweights clash at London's Wembley Stadium on Saturday in front of a crowd of 90,000 - the biggest in British boxing history.

The night is huge but in terms of excitement, impact or historical importance will it oust one of my top six fights involving British heavyweights down the years?

Anthony Joshua faces Wladimir Klitschko for the IBO, IBF and WBA world heavyweight titles

James J Corbett v Bob Fitzsimmons 

May 17th, 1897 - The Race Track Arena, Carson City, Nevada

Cornish Bob Fitzsimmons achieved what boxing in the age of fewer divisions believed impossible by becoming the first world champion at middleweight, light-middleweight and heavyweight.

The seemingly unreachable heavyweight title came between the two others but is the crowning glory of a phenomenal career. Having been born in Heston, he emigrated with his family and started bare-knuckle boxing Down Under before moving to America.

Fitzsimmons is still the lightest heavyweight champion of all time. At 11st 13lbs – a pound below Carl Froch as world super-middleweight champion – he scaled 17 lbs less than Gentleman Jim Corbett.

So great was the fascination with whether he could defy the size of the reigning champion — and the perceived wisdom of the ring — that the state of Nevada legalised boxing in order to permit the fight.

After 13 rounds of punishment from James J Corbett (R), Bob Fitzsimmons won by knockout

When they also authorised Wild West sheriff Wyatt Earp and four of his deputies to take position in Corbett’s corner packing Colt 45s, Fitzsimmons demanded an equal number of gunmen in his corner ‘to ensure fair play.’

A gunfight across the ring was narrowly averted in the sixth round when Fitzsimmons, having cried foul when dropped by body a marginally low body shot, finally let go of Corbett’s legs, sat down and signalled referee George Siler to start the count.

This came at the epicentre of 13 rounds of sustained punishment from Corbett, with no sign of the stunning drama to come. In the 14th Fitzsimmons finally connected with his trade-mark ‘solar plexus’ punch. Corbett fell on his face, victim of the Englishman still rated by Ring magazine as the eighth-biggest puncher of all time.

The flickering black and white film of the fight became a box office success in Veriscope cinemas, boosting by well into six figures the $15,000 purse and $10,000 side-stake won by Fitzsimmons.

Henry Cooper v Cassius Clay 

June 18th, 1963 - Wembley Stadium, London

This was the drama-filled night Our ‘Enery, the best-loved of all British boxers, came within a heart-beat of spoiling the legend of a man who would become The Greatest.

Clay came to Wembley for what was planned as a non-title warm-up en route to shocking the world by taking the world heavyweight title from Sonny Liston and changing his own name to Muhammad Ali.

‘It ain’t no jive, he falls in five,’ roared the Louisville Lip in his customary arrogance.

How close he came to falling victim of one of his famous predictions.

While he fiddled towards fulfilment of his fifth round prophecy, Cooper went for him with a will.

Cassius Clay (L) vowed to knockout Henry Cooper in the fifth round of their Wembley clash

But he was sent to the canvas after the fabled ‘Enery’s ‘Ammer landed flush during the fourth

Seconds before the end of the fourth the fabled ‘Enery’s ‘Ammer landed flush on the jaw. Clay went down, only to be saved first by the bell then by a series of illegal interventions by his legendary trainer Angelo Dundee.

First Dundee climbed through the ropes and helped his stricken man to his corner. Then he applied smelling salts when British Boxing Board of Control regulations permitted only the use of water. Then tore a small nick in Clay’s right glove.

The start of the fifth was delayed by a search for a replacement gloves before referee Tommy Little ordered the resumption. Some reports claimed Clay was given several extra minutes to recover. The time-keep said the interval over-ran by 40 seconds. A video-film appears to suggest only six seconds were added to the statutory 60.

Whatever the reality, the punch which almost rocked the world turned into the punch which made the world hold its breath. Clay used every precious moment to regain his breath and his equilibrium.

The Louisville Lip was saved by the bell and illegal interventions by his trainer Angelo Dundee

The fight was eventually stopped after Our 'Enery suffered nasty cuts above both of his eyes

By the start of the fifth he was virtually recovered and set about delivering his prediction. With Cooper already cut above both eyes , he targeted that skin stretched like parchment over those prominent eyebrows.

That fatal flaw which would scupper all ‘Enery’s world championship ambitions betrayed him. With blood flooding down Cooper’s face, which was cut to the white of the bone, the referee had no option but to call a halt.

Clay praised the power of the ‘Ammer: ‘That punch was felt by ancestors in Africa.’

The two would meet again three summer later, at Arsenal’s Highbury Stadium, for the world title. Forewarned, Muhammad Ali was a trifle more cautious than in his previous incarnation as Cassius Clay. It took him six rounds to cut Cooper to ribbons again.

Oliver McCall v Frank Bruno 

September 2, 1995 - Wembley Stadium, London

Though the fight itself was largely unremarkable, this was the night when our beloved Big Frank finally won the world title towards which the British people had been willing him all those years.

Three previous attempts had ended in knock-outs, by Tim Witherspoon, Mike Tyson and Lennox Lewis.

There was national anxiety that Oliver McCall, a big puncher who had previously stopped Lewis, would do the same.

Fearlessly, Bruno took the bull by the horns and built up a wide advantage on the cards.

Frank Bruno took on Oliver McCall at Wembley Stadium in his fourth world title challenge

Many feared McCall would stop Bruno but the British fighter built up a wide lead on the cards

Big Frank survived a late onslaught from McCall to win the WBC strap via unanimous decision 

‘Brooono, Brooono,’ roared the Wembley crowd.

‘Hold on Frank,’ they cried out as McCall went for the KO in the last two rounds which, by then, was his only hope.

Big Frank, the enormity of his heart never in question like the fragility of his chin, obliged despite bleeding from the mouth.

‘Brooono, Brooono,’ they roared again as the judges brought down their unanimous decision.

And the world, not least the world of boxing, seemed a better place.

Evander Holyfield v Lennox Lewis 

March 13, 1999 - Madison Square Garden, New York

The American and the Englishman — who would become the world’s pre-eminent heavyweights when Mike Tyson went into decline — arrived at a fight which had long seemed their destiny via various world championship wins and losses.

Finally, with their combined collection of WBA, WBC, IBF and Lineal titles on the line, they were fated to be united in un-Holy controversy.

Holyfield had uncharacteristically predicted that he would ‘dominate the first two rounds and KO Lewis in the third.’

Evander Holyfield (L) predicted a third-round victory but Lennox Lewis dominated early on

Lewis survived a third-round rally from Holyfield and looked a certain winner at the final bell

No Cassius Clay, he.

Lewis dominated the first two rounds, then held off a desperate attempt by The Real Deal to fulfill his prediction in the third.

Thereafter, in the eyes of the vast majority of the crowd and virtually all the TV pundits around the world, Lewis continued to build a sizeable lead and was acclaimed as the certain winner at the final bell.

Shock, horror.

Contrary to the first official who gave it 116-113 to Lewis, an American lady official scored it 115-113 to Holyfield and a British gentleman had it even.

The British heavyweight looked to have built up a sizeable lead at Madison Square Gardens

The former cruiserweight champion failed to keep Lewis at bay during the bout in New York

A draw! Pandemonium in the hallowed Square Garden.

Eugenia Williams, who said she thought she had carded a draw rather than a Holyfield win, became a focal point of a US government investigation into boxing corruption.

Larry O’Connell hurried home saying: ‘I made a mistake. I feel sorry for myself at taking so much stick but I feel even more sorry Lennox Lewis.’

New York mayor Rudy Giuliani called the decision ‘a travesty.’

There were those among us at ringside — myself, the respected Colin Hart of The Sun and a couple of prominent US boxing writers — who thought the fault lay with the scoring system which awards 10 points to the winner of each round, nine to the loser (or less in the event knock-downs).

But the fight was declared a draw at the end of 12 rounds - to the dismay of the New York crowd

Lewis and Holyfield embrace at the final bell. The Briton won their rematch seven months later

The problem was that although Lewis landed a lot more punches overall, many came in heavy bursts which won him some rounds by a landslide. Between those he tended to take a rest and allowed Holyfield to steal rounds himself.

Each having kept his belts, they met again in a rematch seven months later. Again, it was a difficult fight to score. Holyfield accepted the decision against him graciously but did say: ‘After all the furore following the first fight I would have had to knock him out to get the verdict.’

But in the context of history and two great fighters, there can be no doubting that Lewis deserved to become Britain’s first undisputed champion of the modern era – and still the most recent to hold that honour.

Nikolay Valuev v David Haye 

November 7, 2009 - Nuremburg Arena, Germany

David Haye’s conquest of Russian man-mountain Nikolay Valuev was achieved by a brilliant strategy executed with considerable bravery.

The London Hayemaker was still something of a blown-up cruiserweight, the division in which he was already a world champion, when he went to Nuremburg for a trial of his speed and wit against the enormous size and strength of the holder of the WBA heavyweight title.

The wary, in-and-out, leave-no-openings style Haye employed came from the first page of his then-trainer Adam Booth’s playbook. And it was perfect for this monstrous task.

Haye came to the ring in Nuremberg 11 inches shorter and 100lbs lighter than his Russian foe

But the Briton used his superior speed and skills to stay away from Valuev's clubbing blows

At 7ft 2in, Valuev stood 11 inches taller than Haye. At 15st 7lbs, the Londoner was a full 100 pounds the lighter.

Tactics other than hit-and-run would have been fatal. Booth also demanded a minimalist approach to ensure his man was exposed to hardly any of the giant’s clubbing blows.

As Haye admitted himself later, this did not make for the most exciting spectacle but it was a masterclass in economy at high speed.

Haye nearly achieved the impossible in the final round, wobbling Valuev with a big left hand

The London fighter celebrates his toppling of the 7ft 2in WBA heavyweight world champion

He danced around the Beast from the East, landing occasionally and slipping away to safety. Valuev, as he lunged ponderously at thin air, was his dancing bear.

It is doubtful if a world title has ever been won by so few punches. There were rounds won by as few as two blows, against none from Valuev.

In the 12th and last he almost achieved the virtual impossibility of knocking down Goliath when he wobbled Valuev with a vicious left-right combination to that huge head, which he described as ‘like hitting a brick wall.’

No, not the greatest fight of all time. But a unique collector’s item, brilliant in its concept.

Wladimir Klitschko v Tyson Fury 

November 28, 2015 - Esprit Arena, Dusseldorf

There was no hint in the bizarre build up of the genius which would enact one of the most sensational upsets in modern heavyweight history.

All the focus was on Tyson’s menacing Batman antics at a media conference and controversy inflamed by extreme statements drawn from his zealous Christian faith and widely denounced as homophobic.

Wladimir Klitschko has denied that Fury succeeding in unsettling his mind but something was not right on the night with the Ukrainian brother who had dominated the world of heavyweight boxing for more than a decade.

Tyson Fury showed unusual mobility and athleticism for a man of 6ft 9in and 18 stones

Wladimir Klitschko struggled to land his trusty jab as his long reign as heavyweight king ended

Perhaps there was also something wrong under his feet. Despite this being Tyson’s chance of a lifetime, Team Fury threatened not to enter the ring unless several inches of extra foam were removed from beneath the canvas.

Peter Fury, uncle and trainer, had been telling everyone for years that his nephew is one of boxing’s supreme athletes despite standing 6ft 9in and fighting at around 18 stones.

The extra padding, which would have given Fury a less secure foothold for his remarkably agile movement, suggested Klitschko and Co believed him.

That was by no means all Uncle Peter got right. He sent out Tyson to dance Klitschko to distraction, while scoring just enough points to take control of the judges’ cards.

It worked to perfection.

The Manchester fighter danced Klitschko to distraction, landing enough points to win rounds

Fury won the IBF, WBA, WBO, IBO and Ring magazine belts from the 41-year-old Ukrainian

Klitschko could not operate his formidable left jab, so could not set up his challenger for his concussive right hand.

It was not totally one-sided so there was a frisson of anxiety when Fury was docked a point in the last round for repeatedly hitting Klitschko behind the head.

But the judges were not as confused as Klitschko and brought down a unanimous away-town decision by scores of 115-112, twice, and 116-111.

Fury was announced as the IBF, WBA, WBO, IBO and Ring magazine heavyweight champion.

Unhappily, his unified grasp of those belts was lost not in the ring but by the deep clinical depression which kept him inactive so long that the sanctioning bodies had little option but to declare their titles vacant.